In present-day Cambridge, Abi, a recently-ordained priest of the C of E, is appointed to a notoriously difficult parish. The priest in charge is the charismatic but fundamentalist Kier. He objects to her mysticism, her practice of healing in particular.
Things come to a head when she sees a vision of a congregation in an old church. Kier denies it and accuses her of witchcraft, unable to admit that he sees such things too.
Abi soon sees more visions - a Roman woman and girl. Soon, a story begins to play out of a family of Roman traders, fleeing the father's evil twin brother, who soon arrives once more, now a soldier working for Herod Antipas, seeking an apparently innocuous travelling scholar. His job is to assassinate him (and any incidental witnesses). Abi begins to suspect who scholar might be, despite her heart not allowing her to believe it.
With foreboding forces all building up to violence, kidnapping, and threats of murder, Abi must battle this as well as her sense that this story is being told to her for a reason, drawing upon the expertise of Druidry and shamanism from a questionable source...
Abi must try to intervene to save who she can, and the only contact is via the Serpent Stone...
